I'll say this: I can't think of one instance in my 20 years in venture capital in which I have wanted to sell a company before the entrepreneur.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I don't think a lot of people have been entrepreneurial about venture capital.
I'd been a great angel investor, but professional venture capital was clearly not the right thing for me.
I've been an entrepreneur three times. I started three companies.
The best early-stage venture capital investments appear obvious in retrospect; however, very few of them are actually obvious when you make them.
Venture capital is always wanting to go up market.
The venture business is a bit of an apprenticeship business, so the firm I worked for didn't let me make an investment until I was 30. That was probably a very smart thing.
I try getting in front of as many opportunities as possible, but in the late '90s, I had no idea that I'd end up being CFO of a technology company. I'd no idea what venture capital was.
Venture capital is unscalable. Production equals the time each partner has.
From the beginning... I wanted to build a company that could sustain not for two years or four years or even ten years but be something that really matters over time the way Amazon and Google and others have.
Every venture capitalist says at some point, 'I wish I could run this company myself' - to be the entrepreneur instead of the investor.